In an alternate universe, several years before The Force Awakens….

Old Gary the stormtrooper sat sadly in the cantina.

Formerly TK-1287, the retired trooper was having a bad day. He blew what remained of his life savings on a bad bet — he backed the wrong team in the Kessel Races. Now all Gary had left were his blaster and a couple of credits.

Someone took the bar stool next to him, an old man with a scarred face. Silently, Gary debated whether he can mooch him for a drink. But the old geezer didn’t look loaded with credits.

“Maybe grandpa here has any credits? Naaah.”

Someone else took the stool on his other side, an old smuggler turned race team captain. That scoundrel Han Solo.

Maybe he can mooch him instead.

“That was a bad race man. Maybe you shoulda stayed in the smuggling business.”

Solo looked at him. “Yeah, the team’s not up to spec today. Do I know you?”

“Yeah man, TK-1287. We captured you back on Bespin!”

There was an awkward pause.

“If it helps, I backed your team today. And I voted for your wife in the Senate polls too.”

Han nodded. “Yeah well thanks for the vote of confidence. So whadya do now?”

“Me? I’m just a drifter seeing the galaxy. Didn’t get to see much during my service, just bulkheads and battlestations. How bout you? How’s the princess?”

“We’re doing alright. Leia’s busy doing political stuff. Me, I finally get to see the Falcon racing without being chased by turbolasers.”

“Great. Last I saw you, you were being carbonited — even told my son about it! Got any kids?”

“Told him I was gonna carbonite him too if he didn’t shut up.”

“Yeah, just one. He’s in Jedi school taking after his uncle. Yours?”

“My little Larry’s in the academy taking after me. Taught him a few tricks too. Jedi school huh? That doesn’t sound good for the poor schmuck.”

Han glanced sideways at him. “What do you mean?”

“Well Vader went to Jedi school, look how that turned out for him. Spent a lotta time in his little black room shipside. Not very social, that guy.”

“Ha, I know what you mean. The asshole tortured me and didn’t even ask anything! Wish he knew I got to bang his daughter.”

“Yeah well that’s the Jedi for you. Maybe you oughta take your kid out, take him starship racin’ or teach him smuggling. The little fucker might turn into a whiny Sith before y’know it.”

Our hero Jyn Erso is caught trying to steal a rebel fighter and is taken into custody. When her background is revealed she’s given the choice of going on a mission to the planet to see what kind of weapons are being tested or being turned over to bounty hunters to be turned into the Empire for the substantial price on her head.

Saw Gerrera

Along with his sister, Steela, he fought alongside Darth Vader — back when the Sith lord was just an impetuous young Jedi named Anakin Skywalker. In the episode A War on Two Fronts, which aired in October 2012, Saw and Steela were part of an insurgent group being unofficially trained by Anakin, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the padawan Ahsoka Tano.

As always, the excellent folks at MakingStarWars got good set intel… the production crew nicknamed him “Castro” probably in reference to Che Gueverra, from where “Saw Gerrera” may have come from

Why is his appearance different? Our guess is the trailer was a flashback, when a young rebellious Jyn may have bumped into him (If you keep fighting, what will you become?) Later on we see the older, slightly unhinged Gerrera… who’s fighting his own war independent of the Rebellion.

Director Orson Krennic

On the opposing side, this villain is an ambitious Imperial apparatchik who intends to use his squad of Deathtroopers to pulverize the Rebel uprising and ascend into the Emperor’s graces – while hopefully avoiding the wrath of his enforcer, Darth Vader.

The Rogue One Visual Story guide leak was right… the only thing it lacked was Krennic’s first name. At this point however, it’s still not clear exactly what he is Director of. The title is commonly used for government institutions (like the FBI and CIA), and not the military.

It also quashes any EU wishes of him being an analogue of Grand Admiral Thrawn, though he may have the same tactical brilliance.

Galen Erso

Jyn’s estranged father is like the galactic version of nuclear pioneer J. Robert Oppenheimer, with doomsday knowledge that is sought by both the Empire and the Rebellion. “He’s one of those people that has insight into you know specific aspects of just how the universe works,” says Hart. Where has Galen been, if Jyn has been on her own for years? “The circumstances of how the family got to the state that it’s in is something that we probably don’t want to share right now,”

Doomsday knowledge is clearly a reference to the Death Star. This reinforces the rumors that Mad Mikkelsen is a weapons designer who refined the original Geonosian blueprint and made the Death Star possible.

It’s also funny how Mikkelsen outed his character when he signed that “Galen” autograph way back in September 2015.

Out of all the major characters revealed in EW, only Galen didn’t have a photo. It’s possible his appearance may be disheveled and deranged after many years in Imperial custody. He could also be the hooded figure in the trailer.

Chirrut and Baze

Not to be cynical assholes, but our two Asian characters don’t just represent galactic diversity — they’re a shrewd move on Disney’s part to make the Star Wars brand a cultural phenomenon in China, where it’s much less known compared to the rest of the world.

Update: Mr_Ghostface_Lives has just replied to our private message from two weeks ago. This is appended at the end.

A couple of weeks ago, we reported on an IMDB user called Mr_Ghostface_Lives who sensationally claimed that:

Luke is not Rey’s father

Leia gets written out early on, and only survives after using the Force

Today, Mr_Ghostface_Lives posted this on the Episode VII and Episode VIII message boards:

For whatever reasons, I made up the rumours I posted recently. I’m not employed by any entity related to Star Wars, I have no access to any tangible material to back up my theories and everything I’ve posted about the new films was pure guesswork.

Apologies.

Two hours ago, he followed up with an additional post:

I’ve never been fortunate enough to be near a Star Wars movie set, but I’m pretty intuitive when it comes to story and production and this isn’t the first time I’ve ruffled a few feathers by guessing correctly.

It’s not worth the hassle, so I’m going to just quit the prediction game and wait for the movie.

IMDB history

Mr_Ghostface_Lives made a name for himself during the run-up to The Force Awakens. He was able to get a number of locations right, such as “desert planet”, a “Hoth-type environment” and other assertions that sounded credible.

However, he also had some crucial misses, like his assertion that Finn is Lando’s son. His leak history is chronicled here.

When a fellow IMDB user brought up the Lando claims last week, Mr_Ghostface_Lives countered by saying that:

I said Finn was Lando’s son? I certainly don’t recall that, as I never heard that as anything but a rumour. Indeed I was not lying about the sets at Pinewood, and I’m not lying about Leia using the Force and then pretty much disappearing from the story. I could say how she uses it etc but I don’t want to give such specific spoilers. I’d much rather fuel people’s anticipation.

When confronted with his exact posts, however, he weakly claimed he was “drunk on wine” and was just having mischievous fun.

The unraveling

What Mr_Ghostface_Lives didn’t count on, however, was the publicity. When news of his “leak” gained traction on the web, he was forced to backtrack from his previous statement about Rey’s parentage:

I just realised that there may be some misinterpretation of the material I read – remember I read it out of context and in pieces.

The Leia using the Force stuff is 100% on the money, and I’m confident that will make the final cut, but the parentage of Rey… I just realised that it’s possible she may yet be Luke’s daughter, but he isn’t aware of it. There is no family “reunion” in the first half of the script and he doesn’t know her, but I just realised the possibility that he either didn’t know he’d fathered anyone, or didn’t know she’d survived some past incident. So, maybe there is a revelation later that I haven’t seen.

Update: We reached out to Mr_Ghostface_Lives back in June 10 when his post wasn’t viral yet. Today he finally replied:

I appreciate your message but I can’t discuss this any further, I’ve been warned and I realise it was stupid to have posted anything. Regardless of the truth or otherwise of anything I may have said, I must retract everything I’ve posted. I have no access to any material regarding the new films, it was pure guesswork.

Stormtrooper Larry was sipping his morning stimcaf, pretending to work, when he came across this headline at 9 am EST:

Ironically, CBS owns the TV rights to Star Trek

While the story itself was accurate, the title was not. Perhaps the reporter, Andrea Park, happens to be a Star Wars fan, and the headline was just a Freudian slip about her sci-fi preference.

To be fair to Ms. Park, there are similarities between the two franchises:

Both are science fiction films set in space

Both begin with the word “Star”

And more importantly, both were directed by J.J. Abrams

We live in an era where two great space franchises, which are historically at odds with each other, were directed by the SAME man. Not to knock off J.J. or anything (he’s a life-long SW fan after all), but it shows how Hollywood tends to play it safe.

It also makes us think of the implications if a central Star Wars character also departed. No doubt the story would change drastically, just as it did for Paul Walker and the F&F franchise.

Except for one character, that is.

In the case of Star Wars, it doesn’t even have to be a main character. Remember that John Williams is almost pushing 85, and we can’t imagine a SW episode without his iconic score. So let’s hope that nothing unfortunate happens to the people behind our beloved franchise.

As for Anton Yelchin, we wish him a clear warp jump as he makes his journey to the great beyond. Rest in peace Lt. Chekov.

Update:The original story has been taken down. It was up for approximately 45 minutes before the buzzkills at CBS were alerted. It’s still indexed on Google though.

Last month, we reported that actor Donnie Yen ((甄子丹) will go back to London for Rogue One, even before news of the reshoots broke.

Yesterday, we learned that Chirrut is back in the UK to shoot additional scenes.

Bothan spy “Peter Chang” says Donnie left during the past week, and is now be inside the guarded walls of Pinewood Studios in London.

“The guy is very low-key. Despite being one of Asia’s highest earning celebrities, he doesn’t travel with PAs. He and Cissy (Donnie’s wife Cecilia Wang 汪詩詩) often travel by themselves and carry their own luggage. So his departure from HK wasn’t picked up by the media.”

Taking on the role of Chirrut

In the official cast photo and trailer, Disney took great pains to emphasize Chirrut as a staff-wielding warrior. That’s because the role was specifically tailored for him.

“Not many people know that Donnie is a wushu world champion. Before he branched out into the MMA, wushu was his life. His mother founded a wushu school in Boston and he was sent off to Beijing Sports University for further training. So handling a wushu long stick is second-nature to Donnie,” says Chang. “In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if he choreographed the fight with the stormtroopers himself.”

However, even the 52-year old needs a breather every now and then. “From what I heard, Donnie had to take a break after one particular fight scene for Rogue One last October. The cause wasn’t specified, but it’s likely because of his recurring spinal injury.” Yen suffered serious neck and spine injuries while filming a local action movie three years ago, a mishap that’s plagued him since.

May madness

According to this Far East Bothan, Chirrut was really busy over the past month. “Donnie had a full schedule in May. Most of it was booked for XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, where he plays the main villain after Jet Li backed out.”

“The XXX shoot wrapped up in the third week of May, and Donnie flew home to Hong Kong. The Rogue One reshoots weren’t public knowledge yet, but he was the first to clue in fans when he was interviewed by Oriental Daily News (an HK publication) during a local event. He said he was due back in London for additional Rogue One photography.”

“He then flew to Japan for a quick shoot for a German brand. That was when news about the Rogue One reshoot went public.”

Pre-Rogue One R&R

In preparation for his Rogue One duties,Donnie took some time off to unwind. This suggests he may be in the UK for a while. “From Japan it was back to HK for three days. Then it was off to Singapore for a much deserved vacation with his staff.” Donnie has his own production company, Bullet Films.

“He and his wife treated over three dozen staff members to a holiday. They stayed at Resorts World Sentosa where the couple are brand ambassadors, and visited Universal Studios. Donnie doesn’t normally splurge, so this could mean he’ll be gone for a while and made the most of his break in Asia.”

Star Wars Celebration Europe, happening on July 15-17, coincides with the reshoots. So it’s possible Donnie and the Rogue One crew will attend the event and have their stay extended.

“For Donnie, it was a well-deserved break before a jampacked June and July for Rogue One. But he made sure his employees got to have enjoy the same break he did, and that’s the wonderful thing about him.”

The Star Wars secrecy

Chang says that out of Donnie’s films, Rogue One has got to be the most secretive. “From Ip-Man to Monkey King, Donnie loved to post teasers about his projects. In fact, for XXX he posted updates almost daily. But there was almost none of that for Rogue One.”

Actually, Donnie did post an update: he was the first to leak the Death Trooper and Shore Trooper helmets on his Instagram account last August:

The image was quickly taken down, but not before the entire Internet saved it. Within hours, everyone from Entertainment Weekly to The UK Mirror was talking about the new helmets. And Chang says that might be the reason for Donnie’s subsequent silence.

“From what I heard, the PR agency behind Lunak Heavy (the production name for Rogue One) hands out penalty cards to members who violate the non-disclosure policy. And yes, not even cast members are exempt. So that’s probably why he’s been mum on all things Rogue One ever since.”

However, even Chirrut has a weakness. “The Yen kids love Star Wars. But it’s the middle one, James, who’s an absolute fan. The little guy has everything from costumes to lightsabers, and he celebrated his birthday with a Star Wars-themed party. I don’t see how Donnie could NOT tell him about Rogue One and expect some peace and quiet at home. So if you want the real scoop, ask James!”

Rogue One and the Chinese market

Despite Donnie’s (as well as his wife’s Cissy’s) spoiler gaffes, Chang believes his role Chirrut is critical to the film’s success — perhaps even more so than the other characters.

“China is the world’s 2nd biggest box office market, second only to the US. What better way to penetrate that market than through the star of Ip Man?”

The Ip Man film franchise is one of the highest-grossing films in Asia. In fact, for regions like Hong Kong and mainland China, the name has more recall than Star Wars. “Remember that PRC (China) was a closed society during the ’70s and ’80s when Star Wars became a global phenomenon. That’s why Hollywood is trying its best to penetrate the market, by roping in recognizable names like Donnie.”

In fact, China is so important to Disney that Rogue One features not just one, but two Asian celebrities. Chinese actor and director Jiang Wen plays Baze, a freelance assassin. While Donnie captures the pan-Asian market like Hong Kong and Malaysia where Ip Man set new records, Wen’s inclusion is directly aimed at the mainland and its 1.3 billion audience.

The Chinese market is still a mystery to the West. While the recently released Warcraft movie bombed in the US, it became a box office hit in China, outgrossing even The Force Awakenswithin five days.

This is the reason why Donnie Yen (and his compatriot Jiang Wen) are the Mouse’s only hope for galactic success in China.

Special thanks to “Peter Chang” for the exhaustive intel, as well as Bullet Films Productions member “Agent Wai” for confirming some of the details for this story!

Six years before The Force Awakens….

Gary the stormtrooper sat sadly in the cantina.

Formerly TK-1287, the retired trooper was having a bad day. He blew what remained of his life savings on a bad bet — he backed the wrong team in the Kessel Races. Now all he had left was a pack of gum and a couple of credits.

Someone took the bar stool next to him, an old smuggler turned race team captain. It was that scoundrel Han Solo.

Gary glanced sideways at him. “That was a bad race man. You shoulda stayed in the smuggling business.”

“The team’s not up to spec today,” Han replied with a trace of irritation. “Do I know you?”

“Yeah man, TK-1287. We captured you back on Cloud City. I was the one who tied you to that torture rack!”

There was an awkward silence.

“If it helps, I backed your team today with my life savings.”

Han nodded. “Yeah? Thanks for the vote of confidence. Lemme buy you a drink.”

Several rounds later….

“… we still keep the metal bikini in the closet. So whadya do now?”, asked a heavily drunk Han.

“I’m just a drifter seeing the galaxy. Hic! Didn’t get to see it much during my service,” Gary replied. “So where’s your kid?”

“Jedi school taking after his uncle. More mumbo jumbo an’ handwaving. Never really understood any of it.”

Han looked at his watch. “Shit, I just remembered it’s Father’s Day! I gotta pick him up today, tell him the truth bout his granddad.”

He stood up. “I gotta go. Little snot’s been lookin forward to it for a long time.”

Today, Stormtrooper Larry sat down with KY10REY to find out more about the film. Whether his claims are true or not, we leave up to you.

We’ve reserved the juiciest stuff at the end.

Who is KY10REY?

He first appeared in February 2016, when principal photography for Episode VIII started. KY10REY claims to be part of the production crew at Pinewood Studios with insider knowledge of the film’s progress.

Why should we listen to him?

KY10REY seems to have advance knowledge of what Space Bear Industries, the front name for Episode VIII, is up to.

Last March, he posted the scouting sets for the Ireland leg of the shoot, a full two months before it happened:

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Then in early May, he announced that Adam Driver was going to join Mark Hamill and Daisy Ridley in Ireland for the Ahch-To shoot, and even broke down their scenes by location.

Adam did arrive one week later on May 13:

With that out of the way, let’s get to the juicy stuff. Here’s the exclusive intel from KY10REY.

On Jedi History 1.1

A fair number of readers have commented on the poor prose and scriptwriting, with one commenting that “if this is a leak, it sounds like it was transcribed or overheard.”

That’s because it is — it came from a storyboard. KY10REY says “phones, cameras and tablets are not allowed… but pen and paper are”. He was actually writing down what he saw from memory as best as he could.

The tree on Ahch-To is really old, “even older than the Jedi”

“If you look at the tree from a vertical aspect, it’s actually not complete.” That’s because he claims that “most static items are just reference holders for ILM”. Presumably, the tree will be enhanced, or even have its appearance changed outright through VFX.

On the Ireland filming

The shooting schedule included a 4-day safety window in case they ran into inclement weather

Thankfully, the notoriously uncooperative Irish climate turned out to be good, so much so that “we had to use our poor weather truck”

This specialized vehicle was probably designed to create rain effects, during what we presume is the climactic battle between Luke and Rey and the Knights of Ren (which KY10REY can’t confirm or deny)

The waterfall at Malin Head will make a brief appearance, though parts of the scene are actually NOT shot in Ireland but someplace else (we’ll cover this in a future article)

Right after wrapping up in Ireland, part of the crew were sent to Germany and Italy to scout locations for the next movie, the Han Solo anthology film.

What’s happening now

Filming is back in the UK, although whether in Pinewood or other locations KY10REY won’t say

One of the scenes in the past week required a lot of pyrotechnics, which caused complaints among locals

The schedule this week has been so intense that an extra rest day was ordered, “that’s why Mark (Hamill) was mostly silent on Monday and Tuesday, but pretty active today”

There will be a break in filming come July so certain cast members can attend Star Wars Celebration in London

What we can expect

Despite director Rian Johnson’s home stretch post, the film has “several miles left to go”

The official wrap-up party for the production crew is still two months away

Rey had 42 minutes in The Force Awakens, but almost double the screen-time for Episode VIII

And the really juicy nuggets:

Expect the Episode VIII title reveal in the first week of November

The Rogue One main trailer will drop four weeks after the title reveal

There will also be a brief (2-second) teaser for Episode VIII

There were on-set rumors of more trees and seeds being taken to different planets, as well as mentions of Ben Kenobi. However “we are not filming any of that, so if true they must be for something else, like a backstory or tie-in comic.”

Note: In the past hour, several readers have asked why the Rogue One trailer is debuting too close to the movie, rather than during Star Wars Celebration. The key word is main trailer. TFAalso had several trailers, but the most complete one (the international version) dropped on December 9, 2015, a mere one week before the movie itself.

Our guess is, shorter domestic trailers are used to generate hype in North America, where Star Wars is already familiar. However, for other regions where the franchise isn’t a cultural phenomenon (like China), Disney has a longer version. The newer, longer cut also helps sustain the momentum in the US, since it features extra footage not seen by American viewers. Anyway, we’ll just ask KY10REY about it when he’s able to sneak out once more.

Finally, KY10REY says he gets asked a lot about Luke and Rey, but not newcomer Kelly Marie Tran, known on set as “Pocket Rocket”.

Why should we pay more attention to her?

“Because her character will have a pivotal role towards the end. Her role was rewritten to increase screen time.”

We have more intel from our secret rendezvous, but Stormtrooper Larry has to get back to work (damn Powerpoint slides won’t do themselves). We’ll reserve those for another post if our alleged Bothan insider gives the green light.

KY10REY will release the next installment, Jedi History 2.1, before the end of June. So stay tuned!

UPDATE: For readers in the UK, the Metro newspaper will be publishing their own interview in tomorrow’s issue. Scoop a copy and see if they have different intel.

Update (June 20, 2016):Mr_Ghostface_Lives has suddenly backtracked from his assertions and deleted his posts. See the latest news here.

About a week ago, noted IMDB user Mr_Ghostface_Lives came out with the sensational statement that Luke isn’t Rey’s father, and Leia will be using the Force in Star Wars Episode VIII before “being written out”.

A few hours ago, Mr_Ghostface_Lives seemed to backtrack from the former claim:

I just realised that there may be some misinterpretation of the material I read – remember I read it out of context and in pieces. The Leia using the Force stuff is 100% on the money, and I’m confident that will make the final cut, but the parentage of Rey… I just realised that it’s possible she may yet be Luke’s daughter, but he isn’t aware of it. There is no family “reunion” in the first half of the script and he doesn’t know her, but I just realised the possibility that he either didn’t know he’d fathered anyone, or didn’t know she’d survived some past incident. So, maybe there is a revelation later that I haven’t seen.

However, that said, I have to go back to what we know from TFA:

Rey can remember being abandoned on Jakku, so wouldn’t she remember if the father who raised her was Luke Skywalker? She also doesn’t have any memory of Luke, the Force or any Jedi training. So that pretty much makes her having been one of the new Jedi that Luke trained and Ben slaughtered virtually impossible. She has heard of Luke in myth and story only. If there’s a later reveal, I’m pretty certain neither of them are aware of it. I’m guessing that’s what Maz is for…

In short, he claims that:

His information comes from a written source, such as a script

He was only able to read it partially “in bits and pieces”, specifically the first half

He admits there may yet be revelations waiting in the other parts of the film

He also addressed a past claim that casts doubts on his credibility, and doubled down on the assertion that Leia WILL use the Force:

I said Finn was Lando’s son? I certainly don’t recall that, as I never heard that as anything but a rumour. Indeed I was not lying about the sets at Pinewood, and I’m not lying about Leia using the Force and then pretty much disappearing from the story. I could say how she uses it etc but I don’t want to give such specific spoilers. I’d much rather fuel people’s anticipation.

Today, after a month, we finally get our first look at what Ky10Rey claims to be Jedi history 1.1 for Episode VIII:

Analysis:

“Clear Horizon” is allegedly the code name for one of the shooting locations in Ireland. The scene was described as “involving a character observing the landscape from a cliff-top vantage point.”

These set outlines were posted by Ky10Rey on March 3, two months before the Ireland shooting. “Space Bear” is the working title for Episode VIII.

The tree is most likely the mystical, out-of-place looking tree in the Ahch-To set built in Longcross Studios, UK.

The line “I feel pain… death. It has begun” might be the scene where Luke and Rey feel the peril being faced by Finn and Leia according to an earlier leak. Then again, it might also be the First Order attacking the Resistance base on D’qar, or the alleged invasion of the temporary Republic capital.

The final line “Rey if we are to _____ you have until sunset” hints at a pivotal choice by Rey. And since the deadline appears to be “by sunset”, this scene might take place just before the Knights of Ren begin their assault, which was reported to take place at dusk.

If this is true, it confirms the IMDB claim that Rey isn’t Luke’s daughter. We see her parents in this vision, along with a mysterious companion!

Stormtrooper Larry makes no guarantees on the authenticity of Ky10Rey’s Jedi history lesson. As always, take your intel with a grain of salt (and a healthy dose of Corellian ale).

If you’re hungry for more Star Wars, check out the Rogue One leak hilariously rewritten by a spambot!